Wright State alum Morgan O’Brien honored for global diplomacy 

This May, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Dayton is a signature event for the region, and one that likely will rekindle memories for Wright State University alum Morgan O’Brien about the diplomat he once served. 

O’Brien, currently assigned to the United States Mission to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Brussels, was an assistant to Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and the architect of the Dayton Peace Agreement. The NATO assembly, in Dayton from May 22 to 26, will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the peace accords that ended the Bosnian War in 1995. 

O’Brien’s diplomatic career has continued to blossom, so much so that he received the 2025 College of Liberal Arts Outstanding Alumnus Award from the Wright State University Alumni Association. 

“Receiving this award means a lot, but it’s incredible because the school has already given me so much. This is just icing on the cake,” said O’Brien, who earned a master’s degree in international and comparative politics from Wright State in 2007. “I am just so grateful for the life experiences and the life lessons learned on campus.” 

O’Brien, who has been a diplomat for 15 years, previously served in Washington, D.C., at the Bureau of Consular Affairs, where he created the role of industry liaison to help businesses return to pre-pandemic operations with a focus on visas and passports. 

Wright State alum Morgan O’Brien’s diplomatic career has taken him from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base to the United Nations and the State Department to NATO.

He was also the State Department’s sports diplomacy officer, a Council on Foreign Relations fellow with the National Basketball Association and served in the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, where he was on Holbrooke’s staff. 

Before all that, O’Brien was in the Air Force, as a public affairs officer in Baghdad, Albuquerque, post-Katrina New Orleans and Dayton, where he was a second lieutenant and an assistant wrestling coach at Chaminade-Julienne High School.  

“At Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, the Air Force really drummed into the officer corps the importance of getting a secondary education,” said O’Brien, who also graduated from the University of North Carolina and the Stanford Graduate School of Business. “Wright State really embraces the military community. They walk the walk in that space.” 

He added, “Thanks to the wonderful staff there that understands and really serves that military community. I couldn’t be more thankful. I don’t get to do all these amazing things for my country without those folks working with me and guiding me.” 

The alumni award from Wright State follows one in 2024 from the University of Southern California’s Center for Public Diplomacy, which honored O’Brien with the Ameri Prize for his commitment to innovation at the State Department. 

The Long Island native lives in Brussels with his wife, Jill, and their three children.